Arts Council of Great Britain

The Arts Council of Great Britain was a non-departmental public body dedicated to the promotion of the fine arts in Great Britain. The Arts Council of Great Britain was divided in 1994 to form the Arts Council of England (now Arts Council England), the Scottish Arts Council, and the Arts Council of Wales. At the same time the National Lottery was established and these three arts councils, plus the Arts Council of Northern Ireland, became distribution bodies.

In 1940, during the Second World War, the Council for the Encouragement of Music and the Arts (CEMA), was appointed to help promote and maintain British culture. Chaired by Lord De La Warr, President of the Board of Education, the Council was government-funded and after the war was renamed the Arts Council of Great Britain.

A Royal Charter was granted on 9 August 1946, followed by another in 1967. The latter provided for functions in Scotland and Wales to be conducted by two almostautonomous committees known as the Scottish and Welsh Arts Councils – the basis for today’s Scottish Arts Council and Arts Council of Wales.

The Council's first Chairman was John Maynard Keynes who used his influence in Government to secure a high level of funding despite Britain's poor finances following the war. The majority of this funding was directed to organisations with which Keynes had close ties such as the Royal Opera House and was restricted to Central London. Keynes used his political influence to ensure that the Arts Council reported directly to the Treasury rather than an Arts Minister or the Education Department as had been the case with CEMA, establishing the principle of an 'arms length' relationship between UK Arts policy and the government of the day.

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